Part 4
THE RETURN TO ITHICA
Well, Benfleet. And there was no Penelope or dog awaiting my eventual return. But there were many vicissitudes and gales, Aoleus and unexpected places visited.
It was Monday, 7th July when Alan went off in a taxi. Ruth arrived in another taxi early enough to have a bacon and egg breakfast before looking at the town. Ruth has been sailing with Richard, her husband on Spindrift for years. They are members of BYC and moor their boat, Escape, next to Spindrift.
My niece Jenny has sailed in Spindrift round the southern Dutch delta, Brittany and the Friesian Islands. She has even got her own Musto jacket. At the time she was about to start at St Martins Art College in London. She had to pack up after a week camping at the music festival in Ross guilder before catching the t from Copenhagen so would take ages.
We looked at the Dom, the Rathaus and the foodhall. We were in the foodhall when Jenny phoned. I quickly grasped that once these two girls sat down without a plate of food in their hand they would fall asleep for the rest of the day.
We had a day looking round the town. Ruth and Jenny are connoisseurs of churches and museums and Lübeck did not disappoint.
Wednesday, 9th July we departed Lübeck for Heiligenhafen. Next day we pressed on to Kiel and that evening we stayed at the British Kiel Yacht Club. This is a military establishment and everything was in apple pie order. The staff went out of their way to help, especially finding the laundrette for Jenny who had just so much stuff to wash after her camping. After dinner we went to the bar. Ruth got there before me and welcomed me by offering to buy the beer all night. It was 1€20 (about £1 a pint).
After a full English breakfast in the mess we motored through the Kiel canal. Brunsbuttel marina was the centre of a Sea Shanty Festival. A stage had been erected and fairground stalls were round the ground just outside the marina. So next morning we had a musical send off as we motored across to the lock to leave at high water.
The wind was rising as we arrived in Cuxhafen so we decided to spend the night there. After a lot of hesitation next day, we left for Den Helder, or perhaps somewhere nearer. The forecast was for the westerly wind to increase steadily over the week so if we did not go straight away we were looking to stay in Cuxhafen for another six days. It was a delightful sunny afternoon as we motored down the Elbe entrance channel with a strong tide under us. Often the wind dies overnight, and this is what I had been hoping for but instead it increased. The tide turned as we crossed the Jade anchorage and our speed over the ground slowed and we were barely moving past the anchored ships.
Borkham should be visited; once, so you know why it is not worth visiting again, although, to be fair to the harbourmaster, he was friendly and really helpful. It was an early start next morning as we wanted to catch the tide up the Eems to Delfzijl. The tide swept us up the estuary with the buoys twisting in the bubbling muddy water.
It was10€70 for the night in Delfzijl. The facilities were excellent, with free showers and internet. In the town there was a comprehensive nautical bookshop – just that it was so frustrating that it was closed for a week’s holiday. As ever in the Netherlands, VVV supplied the required “Mast Up Route” book Keith Ginn had shown me a couple of years ago.
It had taken us so long that Jenny had to go home by train so it was just Ruth and I who took Spindrift cross country. At first it was interesting and once again we were with the Hansa as we were escorted in convoy round Groningen.
We had to stop at Garnwerd: the bridge was closed for the night. Fortunately the marina there has excellent facilities. We went into the restaurant for a beer and I regretted we had been efficient enough to have dinner prepared. The plates of food being taken to tables were large and piled with delicious food which people were eating with obvious relish.
Something that has surprised me this year is the number of people who have asked us what the Red Ensign stands for. “Are you Australian ?” I explained about the Red Ensign to the propriatoress. She was pleased and later brought us a beer ‘on the house’ and sent Spindrift a Christmas card at the end of the year.
As we were leaving Zoutkamp we saw a Dutch yacht, Solo, aground. With no tide she was going to have difficulty getting off. We went back to tow her off. Spindrift’s 28 HP were more than enough but Solo was in gear and as she came off the mud she motored into Spindrift’s side cracking the capping, gouging the gellcoat and bending as stanchion. It took time for the owner to fill in all the forms his insurance company required, but they were very prompt and an offer to get the work done was already waiting when I got home.
We crossed the flat countryside with the wind and rain in our faces. What had started as an interestingly different experience was becoming a chore. At Lemma the weather deteriorated even more and we spent the day in harbour. We cheered ourselves with a large portion of moules fritz.
The next day, a Monday, we had a beautiful day to sail across the Ijsselmeer towards Amsterdam. We got to the Orange sluice at 4. Nothing moves until 6 because of the rush hour. Once the bridge opened there was a mad dash for the lock. The Brigantine went into one lock whilst everyone else scrambled into the other two. They had obviously seen this before as all three lock were opened to west going traffic.
I have always enjoyed visiting Amsterdam but after all the other cities I had recently visited it came as a surprising disappointment. From the Orange sluice the north side of the river was industrial and on the south side only rectangular blocks of modern flats were visible. We hung behind the throng heading for Sixhafen and slipped into Aeolus just before. It is right next to the supermarket but we had a long walk for the ferry to the railway station. Sixhafen was a building site and all round the Central Station construction work made the place look a mess.
The advantage of staying at Aeolus compared with Sixhafen is that you can leave early. We motor down the Nordzee Kanal and by lunchtime we had bought more diesel at Ijmuiden and were on our way across the North Sea. The sun was shining and our luck had changed as we motored into a light westerly wind that gradually veered to north-east.
Dawn broke as we were nearing the South Inner Gabbard. With the morning sun glistening on the sea through the mist we motored across to Black Deep No. 2 avoiding the big ships and then set the sails to the increasing wind and followed the buoys into the Thames estuary. The more the sun shone the mistier it got. We were on the Cant but we could not see Kent. We had to gybe at a GPS position to bring us to the Low Way to make our way down the Ray.
So we came up Benfleet Creek with the courtesy flags of the five countries visited flying from Spindrift’s port crosstree and her BYC burgee from starboard. It was 2 months, 2 weeks and 4 days and 2231 nautical miles since she had left.
Many thanks to those who sailed: Paul, David, John, Brian, Alan, Ruth (and especially to their partners who let them) and Jenny and, of course, Spindrift.
Back at Benfleet Yacht Club, after 2 months, 2 weeks and 4 days away, having travelled 2,231 miles, visiting 5 different countries
Rain in the Netherlands
Vordingborg
